Wandering in Ulan Bator
Trip Start
Mar 01, 2006
1
50
551
Trip End
Dec 01, 2007
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Ulan Bator,
Mongolia
Thursday, June 1, 2006
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So a little more descriptions of my time in the Mongolian Capital. I will give only details, the rest you can find in guidebooks and on internet.
First of all, the traffic is intense, and they use the horn to a point that I can compare only to Nigeria, except that it was better in Nigeria: here all the cars have a good horn, and they use it!!! To top it up, the policemen at the crossings are continuously blowing their whistle, as loud as they can, except when they have to take their breath.
Sometimes, you just feel like going to the nearest car and smash all its windows. (Un)fortunately, Michael Douglas is not here.
What else on traffic... there is a lot of pollution (many are wearing masks), the cars are left-drive or right-drive, as in Irkutsk, and to cross a road on foot, you have to go the mongolian way: wait for a gap between two cars... RUN!... STOP between two lanes and wait for a gap between two cars in the second lane... RUN!... etc... The main avenue that you have to cross quite often is 2x2 lanes, I let you picture the scene. However, if you really do badly and find yourself where you "shouldn't", they would use the brakes...
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Ok, this is said, now about the rest... well it is a city, not very well maintained, but with some modern features. Some of the older Mongolians wear the traditional deel, but most youngsters try to dress in fashion. The Mongolians are very kind and helpful, except for the two drunk I met on my first night and who wanted a fight... I had at least some 20kg in excess of them, so they did not try too hard, but I was called plenty of mongolian names, which I unfortunately do not recall.
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One other striking view here is those people that hold an old plastic telephone like we used 10 years ago. And some other people come and pick-up the phone and speak in it!!! Hey, that is the mobile phone booth... I am still waiting to see a business man continuing his way with the "phoneman" followingh him...
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I also saw the minibus here, and they are scary: they really pack up in there, some limbs and heads are dangling out of the windows, and I have planned to take one of these with my 30kg of gear for a 9 hours trip to Tsetserleg!!!
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For shopping there is this big State Department Store, where you can find alot of things. But then I went also to the Naran Tuul Market (the "black" market, although nothing dodgy is going on there). There are approx. 70000-140000 people going there each day, and for a good reason: there you can really find everything at cheap prices. This market is truly immense, both indoor and outdoor, sometimes in containers. There I bought some horseriding equipment: saddle, briddle, girdles and gerths, ropes, etc... From what I saw, most people just do all their shopping in this market, from food to clothes, including all sort of household or professional equipment. There are several specialised areas, like the biking area, the "mechanical" area, etc...
I did not take my camera there, as the market is reknowned for pickpockets.
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